Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the coroner's Report to prevent future deaths following the inquest into the death of Ella Kiss--Debrah, what steps he is taking to help ensure that there are enough air quality sensors in local communities.

Our thoughts continue to be with Ella’s family and friends. We will carefully consider the recommendations in the Prevention of Future Deaths report and respond in due course.

Local authorities have statutory duties to review and assess local air quality. Local authorities decide what local monitoring is undertaken in line with national and local priorities, funded by their grant in aid settlement. Over £1 million additional funds from Defra’s 2018/19 Air Quality Grant was awarded for local authorities to pilot and evaluate low cost sensors.

In addition, Defra’s national monitoring network is published on the UK Air Information Resource (UK AIR). This is updated in real time to provide a live representation of the national monitoring network.

We have invested over £2 million in the last two years into the research and development of emerging sensor and satellite technologies and practical, on the ground trials in order to bring forward new monitoring advancements.

Information on sites managed by local authorities and those that make up national networks managed by Defra can be found on UK AIR (https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/networks/find-sites and https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/interactive-map).